Do you think Nymeria’s Conquest of Dorne was at least partially motivated by something like “Never Again” ? After they survived the Valyrian onslaught & the pillaging of Basilisk Isle Corsairs, she was determined not to let independent rival power bases exist close by? On a similar thread, had the Rhoynar landed in a more unified andor stronger Kingdom like Westerlands, North or Reach, would Nymeria still have pushed for conquest or would she have bent her knee to the principal power?

1. Absolutely. We can see this from the text:

“To celebrate these unions, and make certain her people could not again retreat to the sea, Nymeria burned the Rhoynish ships. “Our wanderings are at an end,” she declared. “We have found a new home, and here we shall live and die.”

2. That’s a tricky question. Certainly, I think Nymeria was willing to assimilate – hence the mass marriages, etc. – but she very much wanted to assimilate into the very top of the social order, so that as much as possible she could incorporate Rhoynish culture into the land from the top down.

Why does Varys dress differently than other Westeros men of his class? He’s been in Westeros for decades, shouldn’t he have assimilated yet?

Because he isn’t a “Westeros men of his class.” Varys is known to be a foreigner, and to be a eunuch, and not highborn either (only a lord by courtesy), so trying to assimilate would only bring about the sneering disdain of nobility for parvenus.

Moreover, as we see from his disguises, Varys’ very unassimilated appearance is actually quite useful to him. People are so used to seeing the elaborately dressed and perfumed court eunuch, simpering in falsetto, that when he puts on boiled leather and speaks in a rough voice, no one would think it’s him.

Do you think nuncle Benjen was speaking from experience when he warned Jon not to take the black too young? Assuming he joined the Night’s Watch shortly after Robert’s Rebellion, he couldn’t have been much older when he took the black than Jon was.

Excellent point.

Of all the races mentioned in the books and WOIAF, which ones do you think are or were real? Squishers, the pale deadly mermaids, Old Ones, bloodless men, etc?

All of them.

Uh… How is dragon-human crossbreeding even remotely possible even in a fantasy setting like Planetos? Are we talking Pasiphae levels of squick? Furthermore, how do you think Barth reached that conclusion?

Magical gene-splicing?

Study of the Targs and their dragons?

Ahoy-hoy! I feel like you have to have been asked this before but I’ll ask anyway: if you had to guess outside of a war footing, how many knights and men at arms would a average house keep on retainer. I know certain things such as location/available incomes would greatly affect this number but a as general a number you can muster would be awesome. Thanks as always ser.

warsofasoiaf:

Well, it really does depend on the income of the house, which in turn is driven by technology, centralization, tax collection, and so on. I should also tag @racefortheironthrone on this one.

We can chart a course though. Around 1300, smaller English knights would have approximately 5 people in their retinue, more powerful bannerets would have 13-15, judging by pay records. In the 14th century, this number explodes. In 1322, the average noble had twenty men, in 1341, it was thirty in Scotland. By 1359 a banneret commanded on average sixty men. but Henry Grosmont, the incredibly wealthy Duke of Lancaster, had over a thousand. By 1380 the Earl of Buckingham brought 2,500 men.

Thanks for the question, Terra.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

In addition to the factors above, it also depends on whether one’s military forces are organized through strict or bastard feudalism – in other words, are you bounded by how many knight’s fees your fief contains, or can you make up the difference with cash?

Have you ever thought of doing an analyses of Conan the Barbarian and the history of its world? Im not very familiar but it seems very interesting based on what little i know

That might be interesting, although a lot of the essays would be “now I know this part of the story/worldbuilding is hugely, hugely racist…”

Whoa, whoa, wait, are you saying that Valyria’s blood and fire sorcerers bred dragons and humans (albeit of the melnibonean-valyrian sort) together?!?

Yep. That’s probably how they became so Melnibonean.

Politics of the Seven Kingdoms: Dorne (Part II)

credit to Sir Other-in-Law If in Part I, there was a crippling lack of information about the history of Dorne, with the arrival of Nymeria and the Rhoynar we go from drought to flood. While I would argue that the full story of Nymeria’s odyssey to Dorne is one of the best additions to WOIAF, providing a great and sweeping drama of storms, pirates, haunted lost cities, plagues, and finally a safe…

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why do you think barth is right over vanyon in regards to the creation of the dragons?

Because Barth is always right about the magical meta-plot.